Songs of the Earth uses music and animation to highlight environmental themes, focusing on climate migration of a young girl to express the challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation and on how communities are connected to their natural surroundings.
The film was created by multi-disciplinary artist and musician, Soumik Datta and the animation is by Indian illustrators, Sachin Bhatt and Anjali Kamat. It follows Asha, a young climate refugee from Bengal, as she searches for her missing father through the flood banks of the Sundarban delta, burning forests and melting polar ice caps.
Watch the film
Songs of the Earth was a British Council creative commision for COP26.
Partners: Soumik Datta Arts, Earth Day Canopy Project, illustrators: Sachin Bhatt and Anjali Kamat.
Read the Creative Commissions for Climate Action evaluation report.
Soumik Datta is Bengali-born British Indian musician and composer, and a virtuoso player of the sarod, performing classical Hindustani music around the world, as well as jazz, Indo-blues, drum’n’bass, and more. He studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. He was invited by Jay-Z to play at the Royal Albert Hall and has performed on stage with Beyoncé and at the Glastonbury Festival.
Listen to the album
Hear the original music tracks from Songs of the Earth.
Creative Climate Action
Creative Climate Action creative hub is a digital showcase of British Council-funded arts projects that promote environmentally sustainable creative practices and raise climate awareness, free to explore and use.